Inspector Nishikida Likes The Thief

[MangaDex]

 

[yarrayora]

oh my god it finally got scanlated thanks

 

[IrregularPerson]

y'know that one dedicated inspector that will go through many lengths to capture the phantom thief. only he is the most familiar with the thief's behavior. I want to smush there faces cause this is a good comedy, look forward to more translations

 

[Mngtr]

Lol this is easily the best series on this site. 10/10 highly recommend

 

[Komatsuzaki]

Oh my gosh, the first chapter was great. Hilarious!

 

[SiKucing]

This manga style remind me of mangas i read when i was a kid..... a comedic nostalgia....i'm in

 

[Pokari]

Hmm... So, is the argument that it's not gay because the inspector's blushing adoration is played-up strictly for comedic effect, and will never result in any romance? Or do the following chapters go for more explicit no-homo "I just admire him" angle...? _{I admit I'm sort of expecting the latter since this was in a shounen publication in 2013. And the publisher is not SQEX.}

Because the inspector sure came across as a bashful stalker in ch.1 ~w~;

Well, we'll see, I guess. (Obviously, the comedic appeal of the inspector who's gone just a little too far in obsessing over his target is the same regardless.)

 

[sarusa]

Needs the 'oji-san ai' tag

 

[Mngtr]

Oop read the raws and they do kinda toe the line here... but its still published as shounen though

 

[henman]

Is it yaoi?

 

[Zabuza-lov-haku]

Pretty nice

 

[Pokari]

"Shounen magazines never publish gay stuff," and "It's not gay, because it's in a shounen magazine," seems a bit like circular reasoning...

Actually, overall, expanding a bit on what I said before, this seems like a very interesting case with regards to tagging. (Assuming it continues on its current trajectory as of Ch. 2)

I mean this could still pull an (unconvincing?) "no homo", or, I suppose, an unexpected-gender reveal. But basically the entire joke is that the inspector has a mad crush on the bloke. If homophobic social constructs didn't prevent everyone in the room for calling him out on it—for instance if the thief were some femme-fetale instead of "Kaitou Jack"—it wouldn't be funny.

(And the reason it's socially acceptable in a shounen mag despite being gay is only, frankly, that the gay character can be seen as the butt of the joke. For the homophobic readers, the entire gist of the series is just, "haha, gaaaaaay")

Even assuming that the chapters continue like this, though, I can see the argument that it's not shounen-ai because it's implicitly understood that the inspector's stalkerish love is there strictly for comedic (not romantic) purposes (and that it is implicitly understood that it will always remain unrequited to keep things in "good taste"). But that argument at present also relies really heavily on social constructs surrounding where the story was published, not anything in the work itself. To the extent that it matters, then, how much do tags care bout authorial/editorial intent instead of actual content?

So, for instance, if you showed me the same story in a shounen magazine except with one of the two as a girl, I'd assume their romantic prospects were decent, and might be inclined to call it a romcom...

 

[Ceiye]

I could have sworn I've read this before... Thanks for the updates, and I will continue to follow it, but I can't place where I've seen it before

 

[mittalyashu]

I think the romance tag is missing

 

[Mngtr]

I have to say, reading the raws to the 3rd volume,

Spoiler

it’s not gay enough to be labeled as shonen-ai, but it does get reeeeeally close.

Not sure if this should be labeled as BL or not tbh, since the original publisher didn’t, and it’s not even in the BL section of the ebook sites?

 

[plumbob]

I like thief/heist manga.... but someone who has seen the raws, please @ tell me if this is going to be mostly "old man detective being hungry for the young boy thief", so I can bail out now.
I figured I'd let the first chapter slide, but the red flags are flying high.... 😐